Friday, July 26, 2013

question of the day, sex toy edition (NSFW)

Today’s trademark (and possibly copyright) issue is highly
not safe for work, unless your work is like mine!Super Hung
Heroes are sex toys.The Batman
takeoff, who protects and serves GoodHead City, is kind of sculptural
genius, as is the Iron
Man takeoff.There are also toys
based on the Incredible
Hulk and Spiderman,
but I wonder if the Batman/Iron Man versions are more vulnerable to copyright
claims because they’re so much more clever and thus arguably incorporate the
characters in their sculptural elements, not just in their marketing.See ConWest
Resources, Inc. v. PlaytimeNovelties, 2006 WL 3346226 (N.D. Cal.).(Also, that seems to be Batman on the Batman
package, whereas the other characters on the packaging aren’t visually
identifiable from what I can see.)Still,
given the way courts treat sex in fair use cases, I’d expect a fair use defense
to go well—I hardly think DC/Marvel are likely to enter this particular market,
for all that certain of
their products are male masturbatory
fantasies.

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